Copa America! Tuesday, 26 June

The Z Machine

Well-Known Member
Games start this Tuesday, the 26th. The favorite going in has to be Argentina, whose roster is stacked with talent coming off their European club seasons. Venezuela could make some noise as the home team, but I don't see them making the semis... getting out of group should be possible.

The US is bringing not quite a 2nd team, but not their #1 squad, with Donovan and Howard missing. I see them fairly poorly and getting rocked by Argentina and never recovering.

Tuesday's matches:

Uruguay -0.5 -111 OVER 2 and 2.5 -107
Peru +0.5 +103, ML +305 UNDER 2 and 2.5 -103
DRAW +230


Venezuela -1 -110, ML -210, OVER 2.5 -108
Bolivia +1 +102, ML +625, UNDER 2.5 -102
DRAW +325
 
I like Venezuela at -1 on the opener. Their team has gotten better in recent years and by all accounts Bolivia is pretty garbage. I think the opening game in front of a big home crowd will allow them to win by 2.

BTW, Roberto Ayala (ARG) just hurt his knee this past Sat during training. This will help the US on the attack since he's a strong defensive presence for Argentina.
 
I like Venezuela at -1 on the opener. Their team has gotten better in recent years and by all accounts Bolivia is pretty garbage. I think the opening game in front of a big home crowd will allow them to win by 2.

BTW, Roberto Ayala (ARG) just hurt his knee this past Sat during training. This will help the US on the attack since he's a strong defensive presence for Argentina.

Very solid in my opinion, venezuela should take this one easy (2 or 3 to nil). Im not sure about now but until a few years ago, the Bolivian national team had no soccer stadium to practice/play in. They had to play their games in another country, and those games were the only times theyd ever play with each other. Maybe someone could collaborate this?
 
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Scratch that bit of info about Bolivia, I must be mistaking countries. I still think Venezuela covers though. Sorry about that.
 
i absolutely love uruguay -0.5
their team ist very experienced with lots of players who will play their 3rd copa. they have a great defense with lugano, diogo and d.rodriguez.
their midfield with rodriguez, recoba, perez and garcia is also pretty good. my only concern is their strikers. forlan is ok but tends to play inconsistent from time to time and missing too many oportunities.
i consider uruguay the 3rd best team in this tournament and they are my #1 underdog to win it all. they are experienced, athletic and have a strong defense.

uruguay -0.5 , -114, 7 units
 
i agree with Uruguay, i think people automatically just focus their attention towards Argentina and Brasil in this part of the world, but they forget there is still a substantial amount of talent elsewhere and like Steve said, Uruguay is probably the 3rd most packed team. Might see some value early on from this squad.
 
My wagers:

Uruguay -0.5 -123 1u
Uruguay -0.5 and -1.0 +110 2u
Uruguay/Peru DRAW +233 1u

Venezuela -1 -107 3u
Venezuela/Bolivia O2.5 2u

9 units wagered.

GLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
 
Honestly, I don't see either Uruguay or Venezuela losing these games, but I hedged on the Uru/Peru DRAW because I figure it will cover most of the loss from the other two if it hits.

I went with the VZ/Bolivia OVER because as a host nation playing against a lower tier opponent in the opening game, I think they'll want to make a statement. I could definitely see this being a 3-0 game.

I also like the idea of a Mexico fade, but they are already a 1 goal dog to a Brazil team without Kaka, Dinho, and Adriano. Sure they have talent, but missing their top 2 playmakers is gonna hurt some.

I'm about to lay 2 units on Argentina to win it all. They are stacked a poised to take the stick to everyone.

FYI, you can supposedly watch ALL of the Copa America games live on http://univison.com (http://www.univision.com/content/channel.jhtml?chid=4&schid=9756&secid=0)

Vamos a ver. Too bad most of the games are at like 2:00 AM for me.
 
Ecuador is a +1340 shot to win their group (brazil -186, mexico +281, chile, +923). They played great this last WC and have looked OK in their friendlies. It's a long shot, but maybe worth a half unit?

Other long shots that I'm looking at to win it all are:
Uruguay +1162
Colombia +2943
 
one thing i noticed is that people underestimate brazil a bit only because they have a couple of missings. but remember the last copa. everyone thought argentina would win it all cause brazil was without their superstars. and what happend...brazil won the final vs argentina!

i also like the idea of fading mexico. they are without some of their best players. the missing of pardo will be huge for them. couple of experts named him the best player in this years german bundesliga. he and salcido, also missing, were named to the gold cup all-star team. another star who will miss the copa is osorio and starting striker borgetti is injured and could be doubtful.
and don't forget the fact that most of the players are without any off-season for almost a year, having played 8 games in the last 3 weeks.
 
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Here's a nice parlay you could consider......

Uruguay........ They don't have a great team, some of the team members like Arevalo decided not to attend the call, Allthough Uruguay has been a consistent winner of Copa america, and holds the record for most wins... Vicente Sanchez, Forlan and Abreu should be the guys on the attack for Uruguay, a perfect compinaction between speed (Sanchez) finishing (Forlan) and Height (Abreu)............. -150 is a Gift

Ecuador......... A great underestimated team (thats what we like) Had a big WC, and eventhough most of their players play at home, people like Edison Mendez and Delgado give these team experience.......
In the Other Side, Chile has been having problemas lateley, and allthough most of the team thats playing tommorrow plays toghether at Colo Colo, Ecuador is far more solid..... Suazo and Fernandez are a very dangerous combination, but Ecuador has a very good and small team that makes it difficult to filtrate balls........ thay leave small space in between lines, and are very fisciplinated tacticaly.......... +160 is worth a shot

Paraguay - Colombia............ I think these 2 are the most fisicall teams in America........ Paraguay has a story of playing these way, and right now they have a defense that is soooooo good....... Caceres, Veron, Da silva, Morel and Caniza are all great players......... midfield is theyre problem as they have greats strikers also....... Santa Cruz, Cardozo, Valdez, Cuebas and Cabanas............ so, they will sureley have problems handling the ball, and getting the ball to they're front men, lobing balls wont do any good, as Colombia has the second best defense of the Cup...... Amaranto Perea, Ivan Ramiro Cordoba, Mario Yepes anda Mosquera are great heading teh ball and handle amazingly well the Offside Trap....... Calero as a Goalie gives them extra security in the back......
Contrary to Paraguay, Colombia has good Midfield and they'll sureley take controll of the ball, but Paraguays pressure will suffocate them...
This WILL be a big defensive game, very phisical and with a 0-0 through the end........... DRAW +190

Argentina is the favorite to win the cup, i know Brazil is alway the favorite, but Argentina needs to win some kind of international competition, as they have not won anything since 1993, so they face this copa America with they're best of the best...... Brazil sends the "B" team to these cup..... and USA's "B" team wont be able to do much against argentina's "A**" team...... -290

1 unit to get 16............

:drinking:
 
Good shit there, Emet...

I was leaning Uruguay and I think you talked me into a Colombia/Paraguay draw....

GL to everyone... I'm ready for this shit to start!!!
 
Oh yeah Im pumped, just ordered TLN here in Canada, hearing goooooooolllllll for the first time in 4 years will be special.
 
Why, you think Argentina will roll 3-0? I'm not sure the US can score. Beasley aint gonna cut it.

i think the Argentines will become complacent. You expect a shut out but then again, you got a tired USA squad who will want to try and score one goal or they could just put all their men on defense. Lets face it the Argentine's attack is just so stacked that a 3-0 will be a little forgiving. I think the US will score at least 1 goal in this game to help things out.
 
i think the Argentines will become complacent. You expect a shut out but then again, you got a tired USA squad who will want to try and score one goal or they could just put all their men on defense. Lets face it the Argentine's attack is just so stacked that a 3-0 will be a little forgiving. I think the US will score at least 1 goal in this game to help things out.

Its actually a good bet...... I'll tell you why IMO.......

Argentine during Basiles 2nd era as de Coach has had problems because of the humongous ammount of players of great level available to come up with a team of 23........
You have the case of J.Santana who had to become (Paragauayan) to play for a national team, G.Franco playing world cup with Mexico, etc.
So Having so much great Attacking Midfielders such as Aimar, Riquelme Cambiasso, Gago, D'alessandro, And having others that can be easily played as CAM, such as messi, tevez and Aguero, is not easy at all...........
eyeing the possible formation for the match vs the US you will sureley find something like this:

Scheme: 4-4-2

Abbondanzieri

Heinze - Milito - Ayala - Ibarra

Cambiasso - Gago- Mascherano - Riquelme

Messi/Tevez - Crespo


When you see this players you shiver dont you? however knowing the USA and knowing they are used to play without the ball and have a couple of winning plays (which they execute Impressively well) at least a goal can be scored with quick Attackers like beasley and Donovan (Ching's too clumpsey).... i say these because Nor Cambiasso, nor Gago, nor Riquelme defend at all......... Mascherano if he is cationed early by the referee...... Argentine's going to have a tougher time than everyone expects......

That game thay played at Camp Nou which ended in a 4-3 or something like that is more or less what may happen...
Just came back from Argentine a couple of weeks ago, and thats the only flaw people see in their team....... More or less what happened early on with Boca having a slow start in the Copa Libertadores, where they played with Riquelme, Banega, Cardozo and Datolo........ None but Banega defends, he got book early at Toluca....... they lost....... then came Ledesma and Battaglia who defend far much more, and then you have a Boca Jrs who accepted 2 goals as the most..............


Over looks good there
 
Back to post 23 ... The US is sending a second-rate team down to Venezuela. Because the US didn't qualify and received an invite, the MLS teams don't have to release their players. So Donovan is back to the Galaxy... Beasley is resting... and other top-flite players are staying back too. Just gives other kids a chance to get some international experience, but it's going to be tough to advance with them...


If the level of play in Group B and C is as bad as I saw last night in those two games, then the US (even with this B-team) has a better chance than I thought they did going in...

ps - I'm sure it won't be...
 
Although Venezuela is improving as a whole, there are not anywhere near the upper tier in south america. They've never even qualified for a World Cup and only have two or three players that can hack it outside Venezuela.

As for Uruguay, I can't believe that they shit on themselves this badly.

I want to see how Ecuador plays... that will be a telling game tonight.
 
Yeah, amazing result there yesterday......

Allthough Peru played awsome tactically.............
I though Pizzarro said he wasnt playing for Peru untill the president of the Peruvian futball federation resigned............
Farfan, he's so good with and without the ball.......
But i saw yestarday a very small team, they left really narrow spaces in between they're lines, this kid playing in the midfield distributed the ball greatly, but I think they're defense was the magic there, they pushed the team to play so far from they're goal..........
 
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